Envoy to Destruction
by Hawkflight7
Summary: Fire and ice. Hot and cold. Each burns in it's own way.


**Envoy to Destruction**

 **Summary: Fire and ice. Hot and cold. Each burns in it's own way.**

 **For The Weird Prompt Strikes Back! [Daily Challenge] prompt:** **branding**

 **Warning for excessive torture.**

A familiar _tap_ made her head shoot up, staring at the door across from the bed she currently sat on. Well, sitting was actually a rather loose term. Luna had pressed herself right up against the headboard, legs curled in and her arms wrapped around them just below the knee. She had gone even further to hide herself from him by assembling the pillows around her. In all honesty it was just to make her feel secure even though she was anything but safe.

"Moon girl." Another tap sounded and she sucked in a breath after hearing his voice, _Kuja's_ voice.

"Come in," she said, making a point not to add on please. She didn't want him in here, if she had - as if she ever would - she would have used that word first.

With a twist of a key in the lock and a sliding of bolts from outside the door swung open to reveal Kuja standing in the doorway. " _Luna_." Gosh, he hadn't called her that in so long. Her name was like honey dripping off his tongue and she wanted to bathe in it, in the fact that he wasn't calling her moon girl like he usually did. Why had she ever told him what her name meant when they first met? "I trust your stay here so far hasn't been entirely unpleasant."

She almost laughed. Unpleasant? She wondered just how she had thought it would be pleasant. Luna was tired from dawn to dusk, only ever getting energy when she slept and that seemed to be the only thing she did beyond eat and shower. There was nothing else for her to do in this room. Even if she had her wand on her she couldn't get out. It sapped too much of her strength to focus on one thing for more than a few minutes. She could barely imagine how long she would even manage to hold a spell. A few seconds, maybe. It wouldn't be long enough to unlock all the mechanisms on her door.

At her silence Kuja frowned, his gaze flickering across the room. Her prison cell. "Do you recall asking to see the rest of the palace once?" She gave a small nod of her head, not sure what he was getting at. Was he going to dangle the chance of freedom in her face then snatch it away? "I think I found a way for you to do just that. If you're still interested that is. Follow me."

It was just as she had thought. It wasn't a question with him; it never was. This was an order not a request, even if he did phrase it like one. Luna pushed the pillows away, turning on her side to slip off the bed an instant later. The moment she stood up her whole body swayed, little black and red dots entering her vision.

A hand grasped her arm just beneath the elbow and even though she wanted to curse at him Luna leaned against Kuja to steady herself, allowing him to lead her from the room and down a long winding hall. He stopped momentarily at a set of stairs and she yelped a moment later when he dipped down, his other arm slipping beneath her knees while the one currently on her switched positions so he could carry her down the steps.

He didn't put her down though even after they had cleared the staircase. It was one of those moments when she found herself wondering if he did actually care for her in some way. That she wasn't just a little project of his.

"Here." At the sound of his voice she glanced away from the smooth curve of his jaw and to the room they were in. She could hear the soft _pops_ before her eyes focused on the golden bowl of flames in the middle of a balcony just below the raised platform they were on.

"Where's here?" she couldn't stop herself from asking as her gaze roamed around the room. There appeared to be four doorways besides the spiraling staircase that led up here. The one was on her far left, along a curved wall and she could only guess what laid beyond it. When she tilted her head back to look behind her she could see three others: two of which flanked the larger one, they were perfect replicas of each-other with glass murals on the front split into a variety of shapes, variations of purple and blue making up the template. The one in the middle was larger, golden, looking Arabic in design with a golden angel surrounded by glittering pink gems. In front of that stood a glowing red stone on a metal claw base. There were six statues surrounding the spot where Kuja stood now: each with mid-length hair, long robes, a hood that threw shadows over their stone faces that seemed to stare out into eternity. It was unnerving. The bouquets of roses didn't stop her skin from becoming cold even with all the bowls of flames placed around the edges of the room and along the banister.

"It's the Fire Chamber," Kuja replied; only now setting her down so she could stand in the middle off the granite platform surrounded by the statues. If they weren't staring at her she would feel much better standing here. "I'll need you to strip down."

"Huh?' she glanced up quickly, making her vision swim once again, but her eyes quickly focused on him. What had he just said? "Strip?" she hadn't meant for the word to come out in such a high-pitched squeak.

Kuja didn't even look at her as he descended the steps in front of him. "Just take your clothes off. You don't want to remain in that room, do you?" He glanced over his shoulder at her then, his eyes a calming blue.

How did he do that? Say something like that and then act as if it were nothing? At least he didn't appear to be saying it because he was interested in seeing her naked. He said it like it was an obligation she must fulfill. If she truly wanted out of that room that is; and she did. "No," she answered and raised her hands slowly to begin taking off the articles of clothing. First she began undoing the buttons of a silk shirt she wore, the soft violet fabric slipping along her arms an instant later to fall onto the cold floor below. She worked the clasp of her bra next, albeit difficultly since her hands were behind her back. When that too fell she moved her hands lower to grasp the waistband of her dark pants and knickers, pulling them down until they were left in a pool around her ankles.

As an after thought she kicked the piles of discarded clothes away, before turning her attention back to Kuja. Her eyes widened and her lips fell open into a silent scream.

In his hand he held a metal rod over the bowl of flames, attached to the end was a searing red metal clasp. The air around it seemed to waver just from the heat coming off of it and she took a step back when he turned to her, gaze meeting her own. "Now, Luna. Don't look so petrified. It'll only hurt for a second." She very much doubted that.

He took a step toward her and she stepped back quickly only to slip and go crashing to the smooth granite below. "Ah," she gasped out as her head thudded from the pain of colliding with the hard surface.

"Attempting to run again? How often has that worked in your favor, Luna?" Kuja's voice followed her as she attempted to scramble away from it along the floor. His face was soon above her though and she froze in place, wide-eyed and staring at that thing in his hand.

"N-no," her voice once again came out in that odd high-pitched squeak.

"No, it hasn't worked for you, has it?" His gaze turned to the metal rod that he turned slowly in his hands. Her stomach twisted from just looking at the thing, but she couldn't turn her gaze away from it, from him. What was he planning to do to her? "I'm just granting you your request," he spoke in a much softer voice now, looking back at her as the iron hung loosely from his hand. "Do you not want to see the rest of the palace anymore?"

Luna swiftly shook her head from side-to-side. She would much rather stay in that room than have him hovering over her like this, swinging the metal rod back and forth over her quivering frame.

"Hmm." Kuja's lips pulled down into a frown as he gazed at her. "That's a shame." The moment the words left his lips the rod plunged down toward her, the metal clasp opening only to close around her arm an instant later and a scream was dragged from her by the flames that seemed to lick up her arm to her shoulder.

Though she knew the metal clasp was right beneath her shoulder, pinching along the uppermost part of her arm. It still felt like her whole arm was consumed in flames, the heat worse where the metal touched her skin, searing the surface. She could smell the burnt skin clearly, see the smoke trailing up as Kuja twisted the metal along her skin this way and that, digging it further into the fresh wound.

She gasped out in relief when the clamp opened once more, skimming over her untouched skin as it was raised again, hovering over her for a second then plunging back down to her other side. Tears trailed down her face as the metal now lay against her other arm. She could feel the flayed skin from before pushing against her arm, becoming hot and turning to ash just before the heat of the iron reached her completely. Luna screamed as her skin stuck to the metal, pulled off violently whenever Kuja jerked his wrist.

"See? How hard was that?" He spoke in such a casual manner but there was a twisted smile on his face that made bile rise to her throat.

With a distinct click the metal slid from her arm, peeling the skin further back than before and eliciting a new scream from her lips. Luna twisted sharply on the ground, rolling herself over and away from the iron. She lay there gasping for a moment, tears stinging her eyes and leaving hot trails down her cheeks that she imagined would be the same angry red as what was left of her skin where the metal had touched her.

"You could be more grateful for the gift I've given you, Luna." A sob slipped from her when he spoke. Gift? What game could he be playing now? She couldn't deal with this right now. Not after what he just did. "Or do you not understand what I've given you?" A soft cry slipped from her lips and he seemed to take it as an answer. "You're free to go wherever you want in the palace now, Luna. Because you're not going to try and get away again, _are_ you?"

Her teeth clenched, but she couldn't get a word out. Not one to yell at him. So instead she turned her head to glare up at him from the floor, one eye meeting his gaze as her cheek was pressed to the stone.

Kuja only stared back at her before his gaze slid down from her face and over her body. "Perhaps I should give you a tail. What do you think?" He twirled the iron in his hand, while looking over her rump critically, like an artist trying to determine the perfect place to put their brush first.

Her eyes widened, fingers uncurling to claw at the ground and get her away from him as fast as she could. "No, no no no, please-Ahhhhh!" Her scream pierced the air as her body went limp, no longer moving over the cold stone.

The metal had only pressed briefly to the base of her spine, but she couldn't make her body move again even as he raised the metal up. She could see his hand glowing from the corner of her eye, see the metal at the tip twist under his command until it no longer formed a clamp but a thin piece of curved metal that had an approximate one inch width.

Her whole body shuddered when it lowered again and she felt it at the base of her spine, burning through the layer of skin as fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. She was sobbing and screaming all at once as he drew it down lower onto her right ass cheek, making a curve for the tail and then going back over the mark of her skin once again to burn it further.

Luna squeezed her eyes shut, but they sprang open once again when she heard a cackling voice in the distance; jovial even. Her gaze moved swiftly over the room to the far door that was now open. Thorn was standing there, hopping from foot to foot and clapping his hands as the metal drew another scream from her as it lowered further once again, now moving to the back of her thigh. He was singing that damned song. _Again._

She tried to scream at him, to make him just shut up, but she couldn't manage any words and the metal was making her incapable of thought. Her lips only parted to let out a cry of pure despair as the metal curved along her thigh, burning and peeling as Kuja drew the tail onto her skin, wrapping it around the back of her thigh before ending just above her knee.

When he finally pulled the metal away - probably happy with his work - she could feel his warm breath on her shoulder. "Let me get you some ice for that."

She was screaming a moment later, writhing on the floor as ice encased her upper arms, lower back, and thighs; begging for him to stop.


End file.
